Oct 9 Centrist Radical Reform

Three radical reform proposals for the US economy, two already in front of Congress, and one that should be simple.

Crowdfunding: to take away the bank/stock-market monopoly on funding corporations. the idea is to let companies raise money directly - perhaps on the Internet - without paying banker commissions for becoming listed on a stock market. This directs money from Wall Street to productive business and breaks the power of Wall Street to determine who gets investments.

The American Jobs act - to create jobs, to fix infrastructure, to help small business, to provide tax breaks to working people, to create an infrastructure bank, and to pay for it by eliminating a collection of grossly unfair tax breaks for Hedge Fund managers, executive jets, and oil companies. In front of Congress where the desperate efforts of the GOP to prevent a vote and the waffling of some conservative Democrats is a moral failure of the highest level. Please call.

Treasury 401K - a no-fee 4% inflation protected 401K for workers based on Treasury Bonds. This proposal is a simple idea: to let ordinary workers purchase long term Treasury bonds at fixed rate (plus an inflation protection like investors get on TIPS bonds) instead of sending their retirement money to Wall Street where it is used to generate fees and to be the "dumb money" that makes "smart money" get richer. That is, there should be an option to allow workers who want to avoid the stock market to put some or all of their money into special 401K Treasury Bond Accounts. The government would reduce its cost of borrowing and dependence on volatile bond markets, the working public would have a safe place to invest retirement money, and less money would be forced onto Wall Street. Let Wall Street have to compete for 401K money.

The nostalgia left keeps on about reactivating obsolete and unenforceable New Deal regulations on Wall Street. But instead of regulating Wall Street, we need an alternative finance sector that is focused on productive investment, not on fee generation, financial arbitrage and speculation.